“Even from Miss Vane.”
“Polly, you’re a wonder—you’re a brick.” There were tears in his eyes as he spoke. “I won’t forget you—I won’t forget.” For a moment he held her hand in his. And there were tears in her eyes, too, when she turned away.
The Grant boys almost ate him when he reappeared from the little office, but a clerk from the Sempter Trading Company forced his way to Burton. “Mr. Sempter would like to see you in his office at once, Burton,” he said.
“I will be there in ten minutes,” was the answer.
Burton found Mr. Sempter in his private office at the back of the store. The merchant received him cordially and placed a chair for him. “You might step down and get the mail for us, Miss Jones,” he said to his stenographer, and as soon as the young woman had left the room he plunged into his business with Burton.
“I have no doubt, Mr. Burton, your time is limited to-day. Your friends, quite naturally, will demand the privilege of showing their elation at the happy outcome of the miserable affair with which your name was so unjustly associated. So I will be brief and to the point. When I established this business here I was the first general merchant in Plainville. As the town grew I realised that another store was inevitable. The farmers demand competition, and no matter how well you may use them they prefer to deal where they have a choice of stores. To meet that situation it occurred to me to start another store under another name. Gardiner was recommended to me by an Eastern business connection. I got into touch with him, and the outcome was the establishment of a store under his name, although I furnished all the capital.”
Burton raised his eyebrows a trifle. “Then Gardiner was your employee?” he interrupted.
“Nothing more or less. But the secret was well kept. Gardiner was a shrewd businessman, and not even my head clerks ever suspected my connection with the store that bore his name. Now, to arrive at the point: I paid Gardiner two thousand dollars a year and twenty per cent. of the profits. That gave him a net income from the business of between three and four thousand yearly. His resignation is now in my hands, and the position is open to you on the same terms. What do you say?”
Burton was so much surprised by the revelation made, and by Mr. Sempter’s liberal offer, that he found it difficult to answer. But at last he managed to say something about his inexperience in mercantile business.
“It is not experience I am hiring,” said Mr. Sempter. “I can hire twenty years’ experience for twenty dollars a week. It’s character I am bidding for now. I am an old hand on the market, and I seldom pay more than an article is worth. Can you assume your new duties to-morrow morning?”